Monday, November 17, 2008

It's been a while since my last post. Much has happened from my last post till now. The US has a new president-elect. I was bed-ridden sick for two days and have gotten better. Halloween has come and gone but the pictures and stories from it live on. Winter has set in and I'm already pulling out the winter jacket. I am finally in favorable sight with my swimmers and they are getting faster with each meet. Lastly and what I'll probably write on, I realized that ska is dying...

With the weather getting cold and work staying mundane and boring, I have taken to listening to a more positive, upbeat tune to help me cope. Obviously, I have turned back to my teen-hood listenings of ska. Much thanks goes to Pandora.com for entertaining me at work with ska radio stations. Five Iron Frenzy, Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, OC Supertones, Streetlight Manifesto, Catch-22, Save Ferris, Goldfinger, Toasters, Suicide Machines, Clash, Rancid, Skankin' Pickle... I could go on for a while. All great bands that will get me out of my seat dancing faster than any other type of music. Looking at these names and knowing what I do about each band, ska is going extinct.

There are only a handful of bands still around cranking out music. Mighty Mighty Bosstones are in the studio recording a new album. Their first album in over half a decade. Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish are still putting out albums but there seems to be something lacking in each. It feels like it's just another album for the label. Streetlight Manifesto, being on of the newest addition to the music scene, is the only band that I can think of on some sort of indie/mainstream label playing good ol' ska.

Maybe I really have lost touch to the music scene, but still where ska was once booming in the 90s, it's almost at a dead stop in the late 2000s. This makes me sad. So while listening to my Mighty Mighty Bosstones and bobbing my head, I experience feelings of bittersweet joy. Happy to have been around for the Third Wave of ska but sadly awaiting for the revival of my favorite genre of music, ska.

I can't get over this song. It's such an awesome song. Since there is no music video of it, I'll just paste the lyrics.

"Break So Easily" - Mighty Mighty Bosstones

You would break so easily, so fragile that it frighens me. A harsh sudden reality, a painful possibility. To see it's like the strangest dream to be it needs to still be seen. As loud as any noise you've heard, as quiet as a whispered word. Try to answer questions forced, forced inside of me. You were forced across the line, you're not providing me. You would break so easily, I watched you break so easily. What's it like to be right up against, not stay on this side of the fence. A line so fine it can't be traced, a life so suddenly erased.Two came through just like a train. A flash and nothing's been the same. Try to answer questions forced, forced inside of me. You were forced across the line, you're not providing me. Provinding me with what I need to put a cover on you. You took the answers when you broke, so easily you're gone. Once the same until you broke so easily. Tell me now.